Our impact in 2017

In 2017 our university network almost trebled in size, we increased the number of scholarships we provide to young people from a care or estranged background, and reached the fantastic milestone of supporting 250 students since the scheme began just five years ago.

Our scholarship programme has been redeveloped to give smaller awards to more young people, in more universities. This has allowed us to broaden the Foundation’s reach and impact more lives. While the size and scale of the scheme will remain important, our focus remains on each Unite Foundation student’s unique journey through university.

In 2017 we took the big step of making our scholarships flexible; enabling our charitable support to move with an awarded student through exam results into adjustment and clearing if necessary. Unite Foundation scholarships are now completely portable within our university network

Roy, from the North West, was one of the first students to be able to move his scholarship when he surprised himself on results day.

“I got my Unite Foundation scholarship in June, before I got my results. When my results came, I had achieved better grades than I had expected, but I was torn between going to the university I’d first planned, or far away where I could have a fresh start. The Unite Foundation explained that I could move my scholarship and so I asked around to see what my options were. I spoke to UCL on the day of adjustment, calling them at 9am and they had offered me a place by lunchtime. UCL seemed pretty excited to have me (but nowhere near as excited as I am to be attending there)!”

We’ve just published our latest Impact Report that shares Roy’s story and others. We’ve also changed our reporting from calendar to academic years so that our charitable investment is transparent and clearly linked to our student’s progression each academic year. You can read about this short but eventful period covering Unite Foundation activity from January to September 2017 Unite Foundation Impact Report 2107